DiploHack

Networks and collaborations are becoming increasingly important; the world is changing, so is diplomacy. The rapid evolution of new technology in the 21st century offers both challenges and great opportunities. To meet these challenges, diplomats from the Netherlands and Sweden regularly collaborate with other actors to set up co-creative events that can approach issues of global relevance through ideation and design processes.

#DiploHack combines the specific know-how and skill sets of diplomats, social entrepreneurs, tech developers and designers, along with that of journalists, academics, NGOs and businesses to ‘hack’ traditional diplomatic problems in start-up style groups.

Our goals are:· To create new, collaborative and creative methods for diplomacy· To familiarise the civil society and tech industry with diplomats and diplomacy through co-creation.· To familiarise diplomats not just with social entrepreneurship, social media and open/big data, but with the tech industry and their start-up culture and practices· To actively look for added value in technology, social media and open/big data for diplomacy/public diplomacy· To recognise the role of networks and social media and open/big data as central to modern human interaction, including in international relations and especially in public diplomacy

Upcoming editionsHumanitarian Aid Diplohack AmsterdamDo you want to contribute towards greater effectiveness and transparency of humanitarian aid? The provision of aid can only be effectively prioritized if we empower those who are affected. We therefore invite you to join us in realizing the ambition to design concrete solutions that enable populations in crisis to self-report on the support they require. By crowdsourcing humanitarian data, we can radically improve the accuracy and timeliness of the mapping of needs.

The hackathon is organized in the context of the new United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs' Humanitarian Data Exchange platform, making sure the generated data can be shared with a global audience.